from the but-it-was-there-only-a-few-minutes-ago dept.
Anna North writes in the NYT that a report released last week by the National Research Council calls for research into reversing climate change through a process called albedo modification: reflecting sunlight away from earth by, for instance, spraying aerosols into the atmosphere. But such a process could, some say, change the appearance of the sky — and that in turn could affect everything from our physical health to the way we see ourselves. “You’d get whiter skies. People wouldn’t have blue skies any more.” says Alan Robock. “Astronomers wouldn’t be happy, because you’d have a cloud up there permanently. It’d be hard to see the Milky Way any more.”
According to Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at the University of California, losing the night sky would have big consequences. “When you go outside, and you walk in a beautiful setting, and you just feel not only uplifted but you just feel stronger. There’s clearly a neurophysiological basis for that," says Keltner adding that looking up at a starry sky provides “almost a prototypical awe experience,” an opportunity to feel “that you are small and modest and part of something vast.” If we lose the night sky “we lose something precious and sacred.” “We’re finding in our lab that the experience of awe gets you to feel connected to something larger than yourself, see the humanity in other people,” says Paul K. Piff. “In many ways it’s kind of an antidote to narcissism.” And the sky is one of the few sources of that experience that’s available to almost everybody: “Not everyone has access to the ocean or giant trees, or the Grand Canyon, but we certainly all live beneath the night sky.”
Alan Robock says one possible upside of adding aerosols could be beautiful red and yellow sunsets as “the yellow and red colors reflect off the bottom of this cloud.” Robock recommends more research into albedo modification: “If people ever are tempted to do this, I want them to have a lot of information about what the potential benefits and risks would be so they can make an informed decision. Dr. Abdalati says that deploying something like albedo modification is a last-ditch effort adding that “we’ve gotten ourselves into a climate mess. The fact that we’re even talking about these kinds of things is indicative of that.”
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Friday February 27 2015, @05:51AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3) by RedGreen on Friday February 27 2015, @05:57AM
when I lived in the city like most do now good luck seeing the night sky as well an informed decision on a global modification of it, isn't that the same trying they are supposedly trying to prevent with this idea. Great so it back fires and we go into the next ice age then they will be whining we need more carbon in the atmosphere ...
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 27 2015, @06:33AM
> an informed decision on a global modification of it, isn't that the same trying they are supposedly trying to prevent with this idea.
Most of the proposals for albedo aerosols have very short half-lives, like a week or two before they fully precipitate out. So they would require constant upkeep to be effective. Thus minimizing the chance of it "snowballing."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 27 2015, @09:45AM
Won't reflecting all sunlight, even for just a week or two at a time, have significantly negative effects on crops and plants?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 27 2015, @03:45PM
So in other words, people proposing this kind of thing are just another group of assholes trying to get rich off the situation instead of actually solve it. That puts them right into the same camp as people proposing cap & trade and shit like that.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 27 2015, @07:00AM
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Friday February 27 2015, @05:57AM
"Today, I saw a red and yellow sunset and thought, how insignificant I am!
Of course, I thought that yesterday too, and it rained."
-the wood-man, from one of his early books
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by redneckmother on Friday February 27 2015, @06:08AM
Is this April 1st?
Whomever takes this seriously needs to get a hobby. I've seen a lot of strange stuph on the 'net, but this is batshit crazy.
I guess I'm missing out on a lot of money - I can spout all kinds of crap, if anyone wants to pay me to do it.
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday February 27 2015, @07:23AM
Global warming is on hiatus, so we need something to scare ourselves to death with till it returns.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 27 2015, @06:55PM
Global warming is on hiatus
You guys are going to need a new meme. Even the most brutal cherry-picking won't work with 2014 as hottest on record.
And if you don't believe the 2014 NASA/NOAA data I wonder why you would choose to believe their 1998 data.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 27 2015, @10:12PM
Nuh-uh! Its the second hottest, therefore your whole argument falls apart and global warming isn't real!
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by arslan on Friday February 27 2015, @06:44AM
Let's trial it above the houses of the NRC members. Prep the aerosol death spray plz!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 27 2015, @06:52AM
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 27 2015, @08:40AM
it kept pulling me back in but everytime i pulled out
my pee pee was covered with feces
even though i was only in her vagina
"they are together" she said "both same"
it was then i told her i needed her to massage me
and not molest me
she turned red and smashed my scrotum with a large spoon
"you go now!"
as i walked out, a fat lady 300 pounds or so said
"you come back i give you sucky sucky" and laughed
looking back from the street i noticed the sign on
the bulding read, "suck and fuck" and had golden
arches like McDonalds. I was confused so I walked
back in.
an old man asked me if i would like to try their
new menu item *apple pie*. I said "yes".
my eyes darted around the room in search of the
fat lady. after I paid for my apple pie and received it,
i opened it and discovered it was full of human
foreskin. as i was about to ask the old man about
this, he just laughed, saying, "now she part of you"
and rolled back in his chair, smoking a cigar which
smelled like a dead fish.
"you come again!' he pointed at the door.
i exited and the sign now read, "sucky fucky"
so i figured wtf why not
when i entered again i was attacked by several
large 300 pound women who had facial hair
and leg/armpit hair. they took turns sitting on my
face and farting before letting me go.
i tried to exit again but i fell down for the last time.
i was now employed by the fat women for their
cheap games.
in the distance i heard the old man laughing
and after urinating on myself, i passed out.
(Score: 2) by Jaruzel on Friday February 27 2015, @11:31AM
Why the fuck do people post this crap? Is it 'bots doing it ?
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday February 27 2015, @11:51AM
Well I read this to mod up the inevitable firefly reference, but on the whole anything from Hugh Pickens or _gewg can be safely ignored. Sadly there's no way to block this generally (I use 8 browsers over 4 devices on dozens of networks to read SN, so a greesemonkey script isn't a solution, the solution needs to be at the account level.
(Score: 2) by Jaruzel on Friday February 27 2015, @12:14PM
Ah. I forgot that most people browse at +1. I'm actually referring to the spam comment I replied to.
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 27 2015, @04:17PM
And this is why this place will not rise out of the cesspool of groupthink. How hypocritical of many here to boast of community and how we have such great conversation and exchange of opinions while at the same time have most people only look at comments the hive promotes. They should at least have the integrity to drop the facade that this is an open place to air points of view, or at least acknowledge that most people either rely on seeing comments from the ones who are already in the clique and/or only see the ones that only a minority group ever sees and deems worth of promotion. This place really should only let people moderate who are viewing at the -1 level for this very reason.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 27 2015, @05:30PM
Because it still manages to get rise out of people like you.
(Score: 4, Funny) by moondrake on Friday February 27 2015, @09:16AM
Seems like a spectacular bad idea [wikipedia.org] to me.
(Score: 2) by Jaruzel on Friday February 27 2015, @11:29AM
Dammit you beat me to it. :)
I was gonna say, they tried it in Highlander II and look how awful that film turned out[*].
-Jar
* Apparently the Renegade Edition is much better edit of the film - I've not had the pleasure yet.
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 27 2015, @02:29PM
You can't take the sky from me...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 27 2015, @05:09PM
some person waving their hands above head running in circles and calling " WOE! WOE! i need to get new solar panels ..."
(Score: 2) by mrchew1982 on Friday February 27 2015, @09:42PM
Have you ever seen a perfect sky?
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Sunday March 01 2015, @02:23AM
Snowpiercer anyone? [wikipedia.org]
Worked out great for them.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti